Snippets · Destinations

Send logs and traces to OpenSearch

OpenSearch has its own exporter in otelcol-contrib. It writes logs and traces into the index you name, with basic auth credentials from the environment. In our test against OpenSearch 2.17 it indexed all three test log records in otel-logs.

OpenTelemetry Collector

OpenTelemetry Collector YAML

receivers:
  otlp:
    protocols:
      grpc:
        endpoint: 0.0.0.0:4317

processors:
  memory_limiter:
    check_interval: 1s
    limit_percentage: 80
    spike_limit_percentage: 25
  batch:
    timeout: 5s

exporters:
  opensearch:
    http:
      endpoint: https://opensearch.example.internal:9200
      auth:
        authenticator: basicauth/opensearch
    logs_index: otel-logs
    sending_queue:
      enabled: true
      queue_size: 5000
    retry_on_failure:
      enabled: true
      initial_interval: 5s
      max_interval: 30s
      max_elapsed_time: 300s

extensions:
  basicauth/opensearch:
    client_auth:
      username: ${env:OPENSEARCH_USER}
      password: ${env:OPENSEARCH_PASSWORD}

service:
  extensions: [basicauth/opensearch]
  pipelines:
    logs:
      receivers: [otlp]
      processors: [memory_limiter, batch]
      exporters: [opensearch]
    traces:
      receivers: [otlp]
      processors: [memory_limiter, batch]
      exporters: [opensearch]

LinkMesh

LinkMesh has no built-in template for this job. Add it as a custom destination in raw mode, with opensearch as the component type and this body - the same lines as under opensearch in the collector config:

Custom destination body (opensearch)

http:
  endpoint: https://opensearch.example.internal:9200
  auth:
    authenticator: basicauth/opensearch
logs_index: otel-logs
sending_queue:
  enabled: true
  queue_size: 5000
retry_on_failure:
  enabled: true
  initial_interval: 5s
  max_interval: 30s
  max_elapsed_time: 300s

How custom components are validated and rolled out: create a custom destination.

Download config.yamlValidated with otelcol-contrib v0.161.0 on 2026-10-26

Complete config files, each checked with the collector's own validate command (otelcol-contrib v0.161.0).

The gotcha

The elasticsearch exporter is not a substitute. In our test, pointed at the same OpenSearch 2.17, it logged "Permanent error: flush failed (400): {\"error\":{\"type\":\"illegal_argument_exception\"...}}" after its flush interval and indexed nothing - the opensearch exporter indexed all three records.

Manage this across a fleet

LinkMesh manages collector configuration across a fleet from one self-hosted control plane, so a change like this is made once rather than host by host. The first 25 Collectors are free after a no-card registration in the OpenSight Customer Portal (5 without one).

Doing this in LinkMesh: Create a custom source or destination

Install LinkMesh →See all snippets

Send logs and traces to OpenSearch

OpenTelemetry Collector

LinkMesh

The gotcha

Manage this across a fleet

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